The Apollo 16 (AS-511) space vehicle was launched from Pad
A, Launch Complex 39, KSC, at 12:54 p.m. EST April 16, with a crew of
astronauts John W. Young, Thomas K. Mattingly II, and Charles M. Duke,
Jr. After insertion into an earth parking orbit for spacecraft system
checks, the spacecraft and the S-IVB stage were placed on a trajectory
to the moon at 3:28 p.m. CSM transposition and docking with the LM were
achieved, although a number of minor anomalies were noted.

One anomaly, an auxiliary propulsion system leak on the S-IVB stage,
produced an unpredictable thrust and prevented a final S-IVB targeting
maneuver after separation from the CSM. Tracking of the S-IVB ended at
4:04 p.m. EST April 17, when the instrument unit's signal was lost. The
stage hit the lunar surface at 4:02 p.m. April 19, 260 kilometers
northeast of the target point. The impact was detected by the
seismometers left on the moon by the Apollo 12,
14, and 15 missions.

Spacecraft operations were near normal during the coast to the moon.
Unexplained light-colored particles from the LM were investigated and
identified as shredded thermal paint. Other activities during the
translunar coast included a cislunar navigation exercise, ultraviolet
photography of the earth and moon, an electrophoresis demonstration, and
an investigation of the visual light-flash phenomenon noted on previous
flights. Astronaut Duke counted 70 white, instantaneous light flashes
that left no after-glow.

Apollo 16 entered a lunar orbit of 314 by 107.7 kilometers
at 3:22 p.m. April 19. After separation of LM-11 Orion
from CSM 112 Casper, a CSM active rendezvous kept the two
vehicles close together while an anomaly discovered on the service
propulsion system was evaluated. Tests and analyses showed the
redundant system to be still safe and usable if required. The vehicles
were again separated and the mission continued on a revised timeline
because of the 5 3/4-hour delay.

The lunar module landed with Duke and Young in the moon's Descartes
region, about 230 meters northwest of the planned target area at 9:23
p.m. EST April 20. A sleep period was scheduled before EVA.

The first extravehicular activity began at 11:59 a.m. April 21, after
the eight-hour rest period. Television coverage of surface activity was
delayed until the lunar roving vehicle systems were activated, because
the steerable antenna on the lunar module could not be used. The lunar
surface experiments packages were deployed, but accidental breaking of
the electronics cable rendered the heat flow experiment inoperable.
After completing activities at the experiments site, the crew drove the
lunar roving vehicle west to Flag Crater, where they performed the
planned tasks. The inbound traverse route was just slightly south of the
outbound route, and the next stop was Spook Crater. The crew then
returned via the experiment station to the lunar module and deployed the
solar wind composition experiment. The duration of the extravehicular
activity was 7 hours 11 minutes. The distance traveled by the lunar
roving vehicle was 4.2 kilometers. The crew collected 20 kilograms of
samples.

The second extravehicular traverse, which began at 11:33 a.m. April 22,
was south-southeast to a mare-sampling area near the Cinco Craters on
Stone Mountain. The crew then drove in a northwesterly direction,
making stops near Stubby and Wreck Craters. The last leg of the
traverse was north to the experiments station and the lunar module. The
second extravehicular activity lasted 7 hours 23 minutes. The distance
traveled by the lunar roving vehicle was 11.1 kilometers.

Four stations were deleted from the third extravehicular traverse,
which began 30 minutes early at 10:27 a.m. April 23 to allow extra
time. The first stop was North Ray Crater, where "House Rock"
on the rim of the crater was sampled. The crew then drove southeast to
"Shadow Rock." The return route to the LM retraced the
outbound route. The third extravehicular activity lasted 5 hours 40
minutes, and the lunar roving vehicle traveled 11.4 kilometers.

Lunar surface activities outside the LM totaled 20 hours 15 minutes for
the mission. The total distance traveled in the lunar roving vehicle was
26.7 kilometers. The crew remained on the lunar surface 71 hours 02
minutes and collected 96.6 kilograms of lunar samples.

While the lunar module crew was on the surface, Mattingly, orbiting the
moon in the CSM, was obtaining photographs, measuring physical
properties of the moon and deep space, and making visual observations.
Essentially the same complement of instruments was used to gather data
as was used on the Apollo 15 mission, but different areas
of the lunar surface were flown over and more comprehensive deep space
measurements were made, providing scientific data that could be used to
validate findings from Apollo 15 as well as add to the
total store of knowledge of the moon and its atmosphere, the solar
system, and galactic space.

The LM lifted off from the moon at 8:26 p.m. EST April 23, rendezvoused
with the CSM, and docked with it in orbit. Young and Duke transferred to
the CSM with samples, film, and equipment, and the LM was jettisoned the
next day. LM attitude control was lost at jettison; therefore a deorbit
maneuver was not possible and the LM remained in lunar orbit, with an
estimated orbital lifetime of about one year.

The particles and fields subsatellite was launched into lunar orbit and
normal system operation was noted. However, the spacecraft orbital
shaping maneuver was not performed before ejection and the subsatellite
was placed in a non-optimum orbit that resulted in a much shorter
lifetime than the planned year. Loss of all subsatellite tracking and
telemetry data on the 425th revolution (May 29) indicated that the
subsatellite had hit the lunar surface.

The mass spectrometer deployment boom stalled during a retract cycle and
was jettisoned before transearth injection. The second plane-change
maneuver and some orbital science photography were deleted so that
transearth injection could be performed about 24 hours earlier than
originally planned.

Activities during the transearth coast phase of the mission included
photography for a contamination study for the Skylab program and
completion of the visual light-flash-phenomenon investigation that had
been partially accomplished during translunar coast. A 1-hour 24-minute
transearth extravehicular activity was conducted by command module pilot
Mattingly to retrieve the film cassettes from the scientific instrument
module cameras, inspect the equipment, and expose a microbial-response
experiment to the space environment. Two midcourse corrections were made
on the return flight to achieve the desired entry interface conditions.

Entry and landing were normal, completing a 265-hour 51-minute mission.
The command module was viewed on television while dropping on the
drogue parachutes, and continuous coverage was provided through crew
recovery. Splashdown was at 2:44 p.m. EST April 27 in mid-Pacific, 5
kilometers from the recovery ship U.S.S. Ticonderoga. All
primary mission objectives had been achieved.

Official NASA Account of the Mission from Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History of Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions, by W. David Compton, published as NASA SP-4214 in the NASA History Series, 1989.

Apollo 16 blasted off from Kennedy Space Center at 12:54 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on April 16, 1972. Command module Casper and lunar module Orion arrived in lunar orbit three days later. All systems functioned well until Orion separated from the command module; a malfunctioning component in the main propulsion system caused Houston to delay the lunar module's descent for nearly six hours while it was checked out. When Mission Control was satisfied, Orion fired its descent engine and landed easily on the plain at Descartes at 9:33 p.m. EST on April 20.

In the next 71 hours mission commander John Young and lunar module pilot Charles Duke laid out the surface instruments and conducted three traverses in their lunar rover, covering in all some 27 kilometers (nearly 17 miles). While they were busy on the surface, Ken Mattingly in Casper was occupied with operating the instruments in the service module. The only serious mishap on the surface occurred when Young tripped over the cable to the heat-flow sensors, pulling it loose from the central station and incapacitating the experiment.

Young and Duke finished their exploration, loaded the 96 kilograms (210 pounds) of samples they had collected into Orion , and rejoined Mattingly in lunar orbit on April 23. They released the moon-orbiting subsatellite, but because of recurring problems with the service propulsion system, the spacecraft was not in the optimum orbit for the satellite. As a result, the satellite crashed into the moon after only five weeks. During the four-day return flight they conducted additional experiments with electrophoresis, a technique that offered advantages for separating certain biological preparations that could not be efficiently done in a gravity field. A normal landing in the Pacific, north of Christmas Island, completed the mission On April 27.

The LM-11 midsection assembly collapsed in the assembly jig during the bulkhead prefitting stage of construction at Grumman. The structure buckled when the bulkheads, which had just been prefitted and drilled, were removed to permit deburring the drilled holes. Jig gates that were supposed to hold up the assembly were not in position, nor was the safety line properly installed. The structure was supported by hand. Damage to the skin of the structure was not severe, although a small radius bend was put in one of the upper skins.

Major milestones were reached for extending astronauts' staytime on the moon and increasing their mobility for the Apollo 16-20 missions. Modifications in the A7L spacesuit incorporating improved waist mobility were authorized, and letter contract authority for the portable life support system secondary life support system was approved.

The Flight Crew Operations Directorate expressed opposition to a major effort to develop a lunar flyer until after the Apollo 16 mission. Plans for Apollo flights 12 through 16 required that the LM be maneuvered to landings at various points of scientific interest on the lunar surface, and experience from Apollo 11 and partial gravity simulators indicated the crews would be able to accomplish their surface EVA tasks for these missions without the aid of a mobility device.

An MSC meeting to realign the Apollo 16-19 lunar orbital science experiments recommended that the Sounding Radar Experiment, S-167, be deleted and the Lunar Electromagnetic Sounder, S-168, should be developed and flown. Scientific-value for the experiments was ranked in the following descending priorities for the various scientific disciplines: geochemistry, particles and fields, imagery and geodesy, surface and subsurface profiles, and atmospheres.

Ground rules for service module design and integration, established during recent changes in the lunar orbital science program, were reported. The Apollo LM experiment hardware would be installed and tested at KSC. A single scientific instrument module configuration was being proposed for Apollo 16-19 with modification kits developed, as required, to install Apollo 18 and Apollo 19 experiments. An expanded Apollo LM data system would be available for Apollo 16 (spacecraft 112).

The Apollo Site Selection Board selected Descartes as the Apollo 16 site. However, after the selection, a discussion began as to whether the Kant or Descartes region would be the better choice. NASA finally decided to go with the original selection of the Board: Descartes would be the prime Apollo 16 Site.

Olympic Games flag to be carried in the command module during the Apollo 16 mission - .
Nation: USA.
Program: Apollo.
Flight: Apollo 16.
Spacecraft: Apollo CSM,
LM Weight.
An Olympic Games flag 1.2 by 1.8 meters would be packed in a fireproof container and carried in the command module during the Apollo 16 mission. .
Additional Details: here....

The Apollo 16 (AS-511) space vehicle was launched from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, KSC, at 12:54 p.m. EST April 16, with a crew of astronauts John W. Young, Thomas K. Mattingly II, and Charles M. Duke, Jr. After insertion into an earth parking orbit for spacecraft system
checks, the spacecraft and the S-IVB stage were placed on a trajectory
to the moon at 3:28 p.m. CSM transposition and docking with the LM were
achieved, although a number of minor anomalies were noted.

One anomaly, an auxiliary propulsion system leak on the S-IVB stage,
produced an unpredictable thrust and prevented a final S-IVB targeting
maneuver after separation from the CSM. Tracking of the S-IVB ended at
4:04 p.m. EST April 17, when the instrument unit's signal was lost. The
stage hit the lunar surface at 4:02 p.m. April 19, 260 kilometers
northeast of the target point. The impact was detected by the
seismometers left on the moon by the Apollo 12,
14, and 15 missions.

Spacecraft operations were near normal during the coast to the moon.
Unexplained light-colored particles from the LM were investigated and
identified as shredded thermal paint. Other activities during the
translunar coast included a cislunar navigation exercise, ultraviolet
photography of the earth and moon, an electrophoresis demonstration, and
an investigation of the visual light-flash phenomenon noted on previous
flights. Astronaut Duke counted 70 white, instantaneous light flashes
that left no after-glow.

Apollo 16 entered a lunar orbit of 314 by 107.7 kilometers
at 3:22 p.m. April 19. After separation of LM-11 Orion
from CSM 112 Casper, a CSM active rendezvous kept the two
vehicles close together while an anomaly discovered on the service
propulsion system was evaluated. Tests and analyses showed the
redundant system to be still safe and usable if required. The vehicles
were again separated and the mission continued on a revised timeline
because of the 5 3/4-hour delay.

The lunar module landed with Duke and Young in the moon's Descartes
region, about 230 meters northwest of the planned target area at 9:23
p.m. EST April 20. A sleep period was scheduled before EVA.

The first extravehicular activity began at 11:59 a.m. April 21, after
the eight-hour rest period. Television coverage of surface activity was
delayed until the lunar roving vehicle systems were activated, because
the steerable antenna on the lunar module could not be used. The lunar
surface experiments packages were deployed, but accidental breaking of
the electronics cable rendered the heat flow experiment inoperable.
After completing activities at the experiments site, the crew drove the
lunar roving vehicle west to Flag Crater, where they performed the
planned tasks. The inbound traverse route was just slightly south of the
outbound route, and the next stop was Spook Crater. The crew then
returned via the experiment station to the lunar module and deployed the
solar wind composition experiment. The duration of the extravehicular
activity was 7 hours 11 minutes. The distance traveled by the lunar
roving vehicle was 4.2 kilometers. The crew collected 20 kilograms of
samples.

The second extravehicular traverse, which began at 11:33 a.m. April 22,
was south-southeast to a mare-sampling area near the Cinco Craters on
Stone Mountain. The crew then drove in a northwesterly direction,
making stops near Stubby and Wreck Craters. The last leg of the
traverse was north to the experiments station and the lunar module. The
second extravehicular activity lasted 7 hours 23 minutes. The distance
traveled by the lunar roving vehicle was 11.1 kilometers.

Four stations were deleted from the third extravehicular traverse,
which began 30 minutes early at 10:27 a.m. April 23 to allow extra
time. The first stop was North Ray Crater, where "House Rock"
on the rim of the crater was sampled. The crew then drove southeast to
"Shadow Rock." The return route to the LM retraced the
outbound route. The third extravehicular activity lasted 5 hours 40
minutes, and the lunar roving vehicle traveled 11.4 kilometers.

Lunar surface activities outside the LM totaled 20 hours 15 minutes for
the mission. The total distance traveled in the lunar roving vehicle was
26.7 kilometers. The crew remained on the lunar surface 71 hours 14
minutes and collected 96.6 kilograms of lunar samples.

While the lunar module crew was on the surface, Mattingly, orbiting the
moon in the CSM, was obtaining photographs, measuring physical
properties of the moon and deep space, and making visual observations.
Essentially the same complement of instruments was used to gather data
as was used on the Apollo 15 mission, but different areas
of the lunar surface were flown over and more comprehensive deep space
measurements were made, providing scientific data that could be used to
validate findings from Apollo 15 as well as add to the
total store of knowledge of the moon and its atmosphere, the solar
system, and galactic space.

The LM lifted off from the moon at 8:26 p.m. EST April 23, rendezvoused
with the CSM, and docked with it in orbit. Young and Duke transferred to
the CSM with samples, film, and equipment, and the LM was jettisoned the
next day. LM attitude control was lost at jettison; therefore a deorbit
maneuver was not possible and the LM remained in lunar orbit, with an
estimated orbital lifetime of about one year.

The particles and fields subsatellite was launched into lunar orbit and
normal system operation was noted. However, the spacecraft orbital
shaping maneuver was not performed before ejection and the subsatellite
was placed in a non-optimum orbit that resulted in a much shorter
lifetime than the planned year. Loss of all subsatellite tracking and
telemetry data on the 425th revolution (May 29) indicated that the
subsatellite had hit the lunar surface.

The mass spectrometer deployment boom stalled during a retract cycle and
was jettisoned before transearth injection. The second plane-change
maneuver and some orbital science photography were deleted so that
transearth injection could be performed about 24 hours earlier than
originally planned.

Activities during the transearth coast phase of the mission included
photography for a contamination study for the Skylab program and
completion of the visual light-flash-phenomenon investigation that had
been partially accomplished during translunar coast. A 1-hour 24-minute
transearth extravehicular activity was conducted by command module pilot
Mattingly to retrieve the film cassettes from the scientific instrument
module cameras, inspect the equipment, and expose a microbial-response
experiment to the space environment. Two midcourse corrections were made
on the return flight to achieve the desired entry interface conditions.

After separation of LM-11 Orion from CSM 112 Casper, a CSM active rendezvous kept the two vehicles close together while an anomaly discovered on the service
propulsion system was evaluated. Tests and analyses showed the redundant system to be still safe and usable if required. The vehicles were again separated and the mission continued on a revised timeline because of the 5 3/4-hour delay. The lunar module landed with Duke and Young in the moon's Descartes region, about 230 meters northwest of the planned target area. A sleep period was scheduled before EVA.

Entry and landing were normal, completing a 265-hour 51-minute mission.
The command module was viewed on television while dropping on the
drogue parachutes, and continuous coverage was provided through crew
recovery. Splashdown was at 2:45 p.m. EST (19:45 GMT) in mid-Pacific, 5
kilometers from the recovery ship U.S.S. Ticonderoga. All
primary mission objectives had been achieved.

Entry and landing were normal, completing a 265-hour 51-minute mission. The command module was viewed on television while dropping on the drogue parachutes, and continuous coverage was provided through crew recovery. Splashdown was at 19:44 GMT in mid-Pacific, 5
kilometers from the recovery ship U.S.S. Ticonderoga. Additional Details: here....